


_1

by orphan_account



Category: Original Work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-10
Updated: 2017-05-10
Packaged: 2018-10-30 07:48:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10872354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: this is also on my other account. I'm putting it here to work on it until it's finished. then i'll upload the rest onto the other account.disclaimer:i have no idea what's going to happen in the story next. I have only a slight idea on how alex died, etc.if you have any ideas feel free to comment please.





	1. Chapter 1

** ❝Magic　* · 　 ˚ 　 is　 *     ✫  * believing ⋇ · ✹   in ✫  *　yourself,  ·  * **

** * if · ✺     you . 　 ✵ can *    do  ·   * 　 ✹    that,     ✦ **

** ✹    you * · 　can　 ✹       ⊹  make ˚    ✫   anything  ⋅   *　✫  *      happen.❞ **

 

Faye sat at her old, rickety desk, drumming her fingers on the surface. She and her mother had found it at a furniture parlor a few years ago when they were setting up Faye's new attic room. She had just moved out of the boys' room. She loved all four of her brothers, Alex, George, Bennie, and Carter, but her mother had decided that she was old enough to need her privacy, and turned the attic into a bedroom. Faye's mother had planned on just painting the surface blue, but, somehow, bits of white paint had found their way into the mix, ruining it. Rather than painting over it, Faye's mother found more white paint and covered the whole desk in pain splatters. Faye smiled as she ran her fingers over the "mistakes", reminiscing the past. Now, the desk was so cluttered, it was almost impossible to see the top. Random school papers, clean laundry waiting to be folded and out away, and broken pens coated the surface, except for a small rectangle just big enough for Faye's notebook. She was trying to write in her new journal that her aunt had just given her. She loved notebooks; in fact, she had a whole shelf just for them. She loved to write on the pretty pages, to fill the white with stories of dragons, princesses, knights, fairies, anything. Now, no matter how hard she thought, she couldn't think of a new story.

So she decided to write a list instead. A list of things happening in her life at that moment. She put the date, May seventh, on the top right corner, and began her list.

  * _Alex died 3 days ago._
  * _The funeral is in 2 days._
  * _Dad is going._
  * _I haven't spoken to him in 4 years._
  * _Faith won't talk to me._
  * _Mom won't talk to me._
  * _George and Bennie won't talk to me._
  * _Grandma talks to me._
  * _She only talks about her knitting._
  * _Carter talks to me._
  * _He just complains._
  * _Aunt Katherine talks to me._
  * _I think she might be my only friend right now._
  * _Whiskers ran away._



The blue gel pen she used glistened in the sunlight. She had opened the window above her desk earlier that morning, and every so often, a slight breeze would flow in, blowing her dirty-blonde hair out of her face for a moment. She slammed the notebook shut, stood up, and stretched. She was so tall, if she reached high enough, she could touch the ceiling. The floor boards creaked underneath her feet, despite the fluffy brown rug covering them. The rug was covered in stains, and Faye knew the origin of each one of them.

There were the many, many times Whiskers peed on the floor. Faye's mother had been mad about it, though there wasn't really anything Faye could have done. She hated that stupid cat as much as everyone else. There was the time Carter drank milk in her room, and she made him laugh so hard, it squirted out of his nose. There was the time Faye got paint on the rug when she was working on a school project. There was the time George hit Faye so hard her nose bled onto the floor. That one was new. 

Faye wanted to leave her room, to go outside, to walk to her grandma's house, to do _something_ , but she would have to walk through her brothers' room to get out. That was the last thing she wanted to do. So, Faye grabbed her Walkman from her bed, put in a random cassette tape from the stack on her desk, and hit "play".  There was nothing else for her to do but sit on the floor and look around her room. The computer was all the way downstairs. She couldn't think clearly enough to write. She had read all her books. Twice.

Faye sighed, staring at the wall above her bed, while _The Seahorses_ played. It was covered completely in Polaroid pictures, papers, notes, everything. Faye smiled at the picture of Rhea and Mora covered in chalk. They had all gone to the park and hung out, and Mora had brought chalk to be "artsy". It was Rhea who had made the mess, but the other girls joined in anyway. Faye had brought her Polaroid camera, like she always did. That was before Rhea  moved to Germany. Or, how she spelled it, "Jermany". She hated it there. Faye giggled softly, remembering all the silly emails Rhea had sent her. On another part of the wall, there was a note from her eighth grade ELA teacher, Mrs. Lexile. "Have a great summer," it said. Some summer she was having. There was a collection of dried out flowers from Faith she had taped to the wall. Faith's mom had a garden in her backyard, and Faith loved picking the flowers and giving them to Faye. "Pretty flowers, for a pretty girl," she'd day. There was a drawing of some anime girl that Ginger had given Faye. It was pretty, but Faye had no idea who the girl drawn was. There was a collection of letters from Faye's pen-pal, Dan, who lived in California. They stopped talking after he sent a final letter saying his dad died and they could no longer afford to buy the postage. There was a picture of Neptune, for some reason. Faye couldn't remember why she had it, but she liked looking at it. There was the short story she had sent into a contest for her school. She won second place in her county and got a medal for it.

A knock on the door made Faye jump. She ripped off her headphones just in time to hear Carter mumble softly:

"Faye?"

"Hmm?"

"Can I come in?"

"Sure."

The door was right next to her desk. It was a small door, one that Faye had to stoop low to get in and out through. Carter, of course, with his young age and small height, had no problem getting in. 

Carter looked a lot like their dad. He had hair so blond it was almost white, and eyes that changed from blue to green. He was almost five, and he still had a lot of childish habits. He still carried around his baby blanket, a tattered blue one that was about to fall apart. Carter quietly closed the door behind himself and sat down on the floor, leaning against the side of the bed. He slid his thumb into his mouth immediately, a habit he had stopped until recently.

"George is being mean," Carter mumbled. "And Bennie is too busy playing Nintendo."

"I thought mom took it away for a week."

Carter shrugged. "She didn't see him take it. Can I  go to Miss Minks' house?" Ms. Minks was their neighbor. She babysat for almost everyone in the neighborhood. Usually for free. She was a short, stout woman, who was nearing her sixties and lived alone. She had a disease that prevented her from having children, so she enjoyed the company of other people's children instead. She also had a lot of cats.

"You can't. She's busy tonight."

Carter groaned. "When will Mommy be home? "

"She won't be home until late tonight. You'll be asleep by then. Go watch TV in the living room, or something."

"Why can't you come with me?" Carter looked at the bruise on Faye's face and immediately regretted asking. Faye didn't bother explaining. "I don't want to leave you." He looked as if he was about to cry. "I want-"

Faye swore to herself that if he said that name, she would kick him out of her room.

"-Mommy," he finished. Faye let out a relieved breath.

They sat in an awkward silence for a few moments, neither of them saying anything. Carter was asleep when everyone go the new that Alex had died. No one has wanted to break it to him yet, so they pretended Alex was away somewhere. Temporarily. Faye got up from the floor, and fished around the papers on her desk for a Mad Libs. Carter hadn't been taught his part of speeches at school yet, but they played Mad Libs enough for him to know them all.

"Give me an adjective." 

Carter looked confused for a moment, then realized what was happening. He smiled, slipping his thumb out of his mouth. "Slimy. Like Miles." Miles was Carter's pet lizard.

"Okay. Another adjective."

"Fat. Like Suzy."

"That's not nice," Faye said, even though she was smiling. "A noun."  


"Um..." Carter looked up, as if the word was floating above his head. "Ceiling." Apparently, it was.

"Another noun."

"Pig."

"A plural noun."  


"What does 'plural' mean?"

"More than one."

"Then... Pigs!"

"That's the same one."

"No, it's not. It's  _plural_."

Faye sighed. "Fine. A game."

"Scrabble. We play that all the time."

"Plural noun."

"Eggs."

"Two verbs ending in 'ing'."

"Sleeping and... uh... running! I'm good at both of those."

"Plural noun."  


"Dogs. I like dogs."

"Verb ending in 'ing'."

"Ending."

Faye laughed softly. "Okay. Noun."

"Uh... Rock." 

"Plant."

"Orchid. That's mom's favorite."

"Part of the body. And don't say what I know you're going to say."

Carter giggled. "Shin."

"A place."

"Alright. Cemetery. Mommy says that's where Alex is going. Faye, what's a cemetery?"

Faye closed her eyes and sighed. "I dunno. You'll have to ask Mom."

Carter pretended to act mad, but it was clear he wasn't. He was four. He couldn't get mad. "Fine, then... Miss Mink's house."

"Verb ending in 'ing'."

"Thinking."

"Adjective."

"No, I was thinking of my answer," Carter said, giggling. "Waddling. Like a penguin."

"Adjective."

"Messy."

"Number."

"Four. Like me!"

"Okay. Last one. Plural noun."

"Trees."

"Okay... so. A vacation is when you take a trip to some slimy place with your fat family. Usually you go to some place that is near a ceiling or up on a pig. A good vacation place is one where you can ride pigs or play scrabble or go hunting for eggs . I like to spend my time sleeping or running. When parents go on a vacation, they spend their time eating three dogs a day, and fathers play golf, and mothers sit around ending. Last summer, my little brother fell in a rock and got poison orchid all over his shin. My family is going to go to Miss Mink's house, and I will practice waddling. Parents need vacations more than kids because parents are always very messy and because they have to work four hours every day all year making enough trees to pay for the vacation."

Carter giggled the whole time Faye recited the paragraph. They made one more Mad Lib about Jack and the Eggplant, before Faye snuck downstairs and made her and Carter both microwavable ravioli. She had to walk passed the boys' room on her way down, but only Bennie was in there, playing Tetris. He didn't even acknowledge Faye. Bennie was nowhere to be seen. Faye assumed he was hanging out with his girlfriend, as he often did. Faye felt bad for her; Bennie had become very irritable over the past few days.

Faye returned to her room after her sorry excuse of a dinner, leaving Carter to watch _Courage the Cowardly Dog_  downstairs by himself. As she walked through her brothers' room to get to her own, she was surprised when Bennie spoke to her.

"How's your face?" He didn't look up from his GameBoy.

"It's... it's fine."

"George said he's sorry."

"I'm sure he is." And then Faye disappeared into her room. She fell asleep early that night. She woke up in the middle of the night to the sounds of George returning home, and again a few hours later when her mother came home, but she didn't get out of bed to greet either of them.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> unfinished

The next morning, Faye's Aunt Katherine was there when she woke up. Faye could tell, because she heard her voice downstairs. Faye checked the clock hanging on her wall to find that it wasn't even nine yet. Her mother and her brothers were most likely still sleeping. Except for Carter, of course, who always woke up before the sun did. Faye carefully opened her door, a little bit at a time to ensure it didn't creak. When nothing was thrown at her door, she ducked her head, and dashed through the boys' room. From the stairwell, Faye could hear Aunt K talking to Carter, while a baby giggled. Faye, cat pajamas, bedhead, and all, slowly crept down the stairs and into the kitchen.

"Good morning, Faye," Aunt K said. She was a tall, grand woman, with dark brown hair, and green eyes. Faye resembled her aunt more than her mother, and sometimes got mistaken for Aunt K's daughter.

Faye nodded in response. Aunt K had Annie sitting in her lap, bouncing the baby on her knee. Annie had a frizzy man of bright red hair, like her father, and green eyes, like her mother. Carter looked up from his bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios at Faye. "I was wondering if you can watch Annie for a few hours. I have to go shopping and she can't come." Annie grinned at Faye, revealing developing teeth.

"I dunno..." Faye trailed off.

"I got a new book for you," she said with a smirk, knowing it didn't take much to bribe Faye. She slid it across the table, revealing a battered copy of Hermann and Dorothea. Faye hadn't heard of it before, but it looked interesting.

"Alright."

Aunt K smiled, handing Annie over to Faye. "I'll be back in a few hours. Tell your mother I said hi." And then she left.


End file.
